Pressure on Trapattoni to build on improved performance

A 0-0 draw in Stockholm was a just reward for Ireland on Friday night, as Trapattoni's young team turned in a refreshingly competent performance - doing much to silence the grumblings of discontent and disillusionment that have been following the team like a pungent smell since the European Championships. Criticism of the manager, his tactics, and his team/squad selections had long ceased to merely be the cantankerous uproar of contrarians and trolls; we all had good reason to be concerned with the direction of the team under Trapattoni. The persistence with 4-4-2, and the constant favouritism of grizzled, lower-league journeymen over in-form EPL talent - exemplified by Trapattoni's initial favouring of Paul Green over James McCarthy - was worrying and frustrating in equal measure.

However, Trapattoni changed tack for Sweden. While one of these changes was, indeed, forced, others were borne of common-sense and a refreshing placement of trust and confidence in the younger players. Coleman and Wilson attacked with purpose, maintained possession and defended with a competence not seen from Irish players in their positions for over ten years. Since the retirement of Denis Irwin, Ireland have suffered through a litany of vulnerable left-backs - Harte, O'Shea, Kilbane and the hapless Ward have all been tried there, but Wilson looks like the first in that line to offer both defensive solidity and technical prowess. Coleman, on the other side, continues to improve as a dynamic, attacking right-back. Clark did the basics well, and now looks like a genuine international-standard centre-half. McCarthy, rightfully restored to the starting line-up, gave a mature and intelligent performance in midfield, and will only continue to improve. McClean showed some glimpses of Kilbane-esque directness and aggression on the left-wing, but his final ball was often found lacking, notably from set-pieces. Long led the line as best he could, battling bravely against Olsson, winning his share of 50-50s, but was isolated at times. These players are all relatively uncontaminated from last summer's fiasco, and many have a point to prove after being ignored for quite a long time. This injection of energy - and chippiness - was a factor in Ireland's controlled aggression and ambition on Friday night.

Another interesting factor was the positioning of Robbie Keane as an extra midfielder with licence to roam across the frontline from deep in attacking phases. It is the first time that Trapattoni has allowed such a tactical shift, and it paid dividends, with Sweden unable to play through Ireland's bolstered midfield, despite the ever-present threat of a deep-lying Ibrahimovic. Keane's presence in midfield allowed McCarthy or Green to push forward to join him in closing down Elm and Kallstrom, forcing them into uncharacteristically aimless passes into the channels, which the mobile Irish back four could deal with. Also, with Walters and McClean flying into tackles and covering their full-backs, the Swedes were struggling to find any points of attack. Ibrahimovic may have been on a sulk, but Sweden were choked and negated from much deeper on the pitch. Jack Charlton would have been proud of Ireland's incessant pressure in the opposition half. However, Sweden did not help themselves with some sloppy passing and unforced errors. When they did create chances, they were undone by the wastefulness of Tobias Hysen - a player who was once kept out of Sunderland's team by Daryl Murphy.

Tactically, the the controlled aggression, discipline and organisation of the Irish team had the indelible stamp of Trapattoni, and he can take credit for that. However, the circumstances of McCarthy's dropping and reinstatement, and the baffling set of decisions regarding Robbie Brady, remind us that Trapattoni's ideas are not always clear or even conventionally logical. Glenn Whelan will most likely start on Tuesday, despite not being fully fit. Whelan is a big part of the long-term midfield problem which seemed to have been remedied on Friday night, and his pedestrian presence is definitely a backwards step in a game where Ireland will need to dictate the pace in midfield. Also, rumours abound that Conor Sammon will take the injured Robbie Keane's place, meaning a return to a flat 4-4-2. Hoolahan would have been the natural alternative in the 'floating' role that Keane played the other night, and would have ensured continuity from an impressive performance. It seems that Trapattoni, having stumbled upon a promising, progressive formula, seems determined to undermine all his good work and revert to the blundering Neanderthal hoofball of Plan A.

On Friday, Trapattoni finally seemed to realise that a subtle positional shift was needed to offset our previous lack of numbers in midfield. It worked, but the positives from Stockholm will only be banked if we continue to play with the same flexibility and ambition against Austria. Hoofing it towards Conor Sammon will not be enough against an Austrian team that should be more than capable of retaining any loose possession. This blog has been barking up the Hoolahan tree for quite a while now, and this is an ideal opportunity to make the best of his talents without disrupting the solid foundations which Ireland's young players laid on Friday. If - as seems probable - Ireland return to the long-ball tactics of that abysmal first half against Poland, the required three points will be forsaken, and that would be a crying shame given the pleasant surprise of Stockholm. Over to you, Trap.

Sweden vs. Ireland - Preview

This time next week, Ireland's World Cup qualifying campaign will still only be, on the fixture list, a half-written narrative. However, with seven games remaining prior to our Stockholm showdown, there is a palpable sense of doom. The pre-game atmosphere among Irish fans has been muted - almost resigned to inevitable fate, much like the comportment of the travelling Green Army in Prague in 2007. A battling 1-0 defeat then to the Czech Republic put paid to Ireland's qualification hopes, and as Jon Walters admitted during the week, if Ireland take less than four points from the next two games, a playoff place is very, very unlikely. Even if Ireland pull out a positive result from Friday night's game, there is little to suggest that the team in its current guise has the capability of grinding out the necessary results in the remaining games to make it into the playoffs - or indeed to overcome a seeded opponent over two legs.

Trapattoni's selections have grown more bizarre and less defensible as the seasons have passed. The controversial dropping of Andy Reid for the likes of Miller and Rowlands in 2008/9 was not, as may have been thought, a pragmatic, once-off, commendably hard-line decision, but a decision based on favouritism of a certain type of footballer, which Trapattoni sees as essential to the success of a country which does not churn out 'flair' players. The qualities of aggression, physicality, directness and graft will, according to Trap's logic, compensate for our traditional technical shortcomings through a bloody-minded refusal to play the rest of Europe at its own dilettante, tippy-tappy game.

However, football has moved on from the days of Egil Olsen's Norway, Richard Moller-Nielsen's Denmark, Jack Charlton's Ireland, and even Otto Rehegal's Greece. Graft and guts are not enough in an era when skilful players (and divers) are institutionally mollycoddled by UEFA's referees - when even the lesser European nations boast technically gifted midfielders, capable of maintaining possession, particularly when it is repeatedly gifted away.  Trap's obtuse philosophy will see the likes of Wes Hoolahan, Shane Long and possibly James McCarthy shelved for the dubious talents of Jon Walters, Conor Sammon and Paul Green, and has already put paid to the immediate international future of Darron Gibson - possibly Ireland's most impressive midfielder in the EPL. With Dunne, McGeady and Pilkington injured, and no obvious replacements apparent for Duff and Given, Ireland can not afford to cast aside its foremost talents. Yet, that is exactly what is going to happen in Stockholm tomorrow night.

Sweden, as they showed in the European Championships, have a technically sound team with a fair smattering of pace and the usual dollop of Scandinavian confidence and efficiency. If Paul Green's mooted marking job on Ibrahimovic manages to defy logic and achieve the desired effect, the likes of Russia-based Rasmus Elm and Kim Kallstrom will still provide a significant goal threat, aside from the mockery they promise to make of our beleaguered, undermanned midfield. They will be comfortable on the ball, clever in their utilisation of Ibrahimovic in deep positions, and clinical in their finishing if the chances are offered.

Ireland's likely centre-back partnership of O'Shea and Clark has not looked at ease in either of the last two friendlies, and their club form is not encouraging. Full-backs Coleman and Wilson both offer some semblance of promise and natural ability in those problematic positions, but with only three competitive starts between them, they could be in for a harrowing introduction to this level. Trap's reluctance to blood both players over the last eighteen months could be costly, as they now find themselves thrown in at the deep end. The likely wing pairing of Robbie Brady and James McClean is even less experienced at this level, but the alternatives (strikers Cox and Keogh) don't even bear thinking about. Brady's excellent set piece delivery could bear some fruit, however, and may, sadly, represent Ireland's only hope at creating chances. Up front, the Keane-Walters partnership offers little more than the isolation of an obsolete attacking principle - the 'big man, little man' combination that was so popular in the early 1990s. Keane's form is impossible to read, given the paucity of real challenges in his current employment, but one must suspect that a combination of Hoolahan and Long would be far more effective than the prospect of static strikers clinging to the shoulders of the big Swedish centre-halves.

The omission of Kevin Doyle is a non-issue, despite the usual desperate scandal-mongering of the Irish media. He would not have played, nor made much of a difference as a substitute, on his abject current form (Sammon should not have been selected either, I must add, but truly, neither deserves a place). Hoolahan and Long are the elephants in the room, and if the talents of McCarthy are sacrificed for the slapstick designs of Paul Green - Irish football's answer to Jar Jar Binks - then Trapattoni will truly deserve what comes to him. However, the prospect of being World Cup 'also-rans' with fifteen months to go until the finals is not what the Irish fans deserve, nor the hard-working, dedicated players within the squad who are hamstrung - like, dare I say it, in the doomed Staunton era - by tactical intransigence and bizarre selections.